Off We GO
by SpiritGaurdian108
Summary: When you're chosen to take a journey through the multi-verse, what do you do? Establish a multi-dimensional empire? Angst over worlds left behind? Search for ultimate power? Well bless your heart, but I'm gonna have fun. Self insert shenanigans. Rated M for language mostly.
1. Chapter 1

The Room rammed itself into existence in between the realm of the new Champion and a dimension where the top species was a strain of sapient sea slug. The Room wasn't so much a room as a blindingly white plane with the vaguest impression of barriers marking walls. Sitting within the Room was A Being of indeterminable age, gender, and physical state.

The Being Within the Room, or just the Being to nir friends, sat in contemplation for a moment or a millennium, depending upon whether you thought about it too hard, thinking about how to go about nir newest Claiming. Perhaps a car accident. No, too overdone. The new champion was fond of swimming, perhaps a shark attack? Wait, got it. A snap of the Beings fingers - claws, tentacles, paws? - and the Champion was pushed down a flight of steps in the middle of his crowded school resulting in a cracked skull and a comatose state. Since it happened on government property and the family was relatively well off, they quickly won a settlement that allowed them to care for the boy and to ease their own lifestyles just a tad.

In the Room a ball of metaphysical energies, imprints of consciousness, and a slight hint the aroma one finds in an ill used library that could collectively be termed a soul formed in front of the Being

"Morning boyo, bit of a rough tumble that, eh?" ne said.

Since the ball of metaphysical energies was just a ball and incapable of speech it pulsated in a way that could be viewed as either agreement or a request for a nice shrubbery.

"Right, silly of me, forgot to give you a body."

The ball faded away - it didn't actually fade, more like it shifted slightly outwards and inwards at the same time - and in its place was a young man of average height and weight. He looked to be in his mid to late teens and was wearing a large sweatshirt and a beanie that hid most of his dark curly hair. There was a smattering of acne across his forehead and just the hint of a faded scar on his cheek.

"Better?" asked the Being, having given the boy the last form his 'soul' remembered inhabiting.

"A bit. Is this the afterlife?" asked the boy, unnaturally calm for someone of his position.

"Nah, just a little cube of threads and dark matter I threw together so that we could talk." the Being replied. Ne crossed nir… arms and leaned against the impression of a desk.

"Talk about what?"

"Oh, where we go from here and what you wanna do with your life mostly."

"Uh, we're not talking about college right?"

"No. Though, maybe in a few unive- wait, getting sidetracked. I'm here to give you three options." ne snapped nir fing… digits again and three doors or impressions of doors open. One leads to a hospital room, one leads to a swirling purple mist, and the other is seemingly empty, just a doorframe standing in the middle of the room.

"Option numero uno would be I return you home and you and your family go on with your lives. You wouldn't have any memory of this place when you wake up." ne says while gesturing at the first door.

"Door two leads to an adjacent universe where you will spend ten years living and fighting for my entertainment. It'll be a realm you're decently familiar with, likely being expressed as a book series or tv show or something of the like in your hometown. If you choose that option I'll give you a few perks to help you along the way."

The boy stared at the Being, a small degree of incredulity escaping through the emotionless surface.

"And why would I do that." he asked.

"Because if you do, and you manage to survive, you get to keep any powers, items, tech, and even a companion or two and take them back to your home dimension." the Being smirked. Well, at the moment it didn't have any orifices -which was rather odd in and of itself since it was clearly speaking - but it gave off the feeling of smugness that usually accompanied a smirk.

"Huh, that'd be useful, depending on which universe I got into. Where does the other door lead."

"To whatever afterlife your home dimension managed to slop together."

"What happens after the ten years?"

"You get to make another choice. I return you to your home dimension with no time having passed, you stay in the dimension you're in, or you make another Jump."

"Why are you doing this?" The Being shrugged, somehow being able to do so while composed entirely of feet.

"When you get to be my age, you get your kicks in some pretty weird ways."

The boy nodded, looking pensive. Biting his lip he looked between the three doors before making his choice.

* * *

I stumbled out of the the purple doorway, which immediately dissolved into so many motes of light as he exited it. The new surroundings were similar to the old, black void replacing white and a thin pedestal replacing the impression of a desk.

I walked up to the pedestal, seeing a glowing white screen embedded into onyx stone. I peered down at the panel and was greeted by a block of text that somehow gave off surprising levels of cheer for something printed in arial.

Hello, and welcome the wonderful wizarding world of Harry Potter! Here you will be brought into a society that lives side by side with our own, a society of magic and mystery. Make your way through Wizarding Britain and uncover the secrets that lie on the other side of the veil.

1000 Choice Points

I stared at the screen with a small smile on I face. Harry Potter, eh? Quite a good fit for me since I've spent the past nine years in a never ending geek out over the series. Now what were these points about?

Origin: Though you are still essentially you, you will be changed to better fit into this world. All origins start at eleven years old.

Drop In: You wake up in an alley behind an orphanage. Walking in, the receptionist quickly herds you into a room treating you as just another orphan. Once inside, a man in odd clothing offers you a place at a school for wizards. What?

-No new memories affecting your actions.

\- People will assume you're muggleborn.

-As you have no family, your only choice for family wealth is impoverished

-Free

Muggleborn: You were raised in the muggle world with a new family. Aside from a few odd incidents, you had an extraordinarily normal life. Waking up and going downstairs you are greeted by your parents having a conversation with a person in very odd clothing and your dining table is now a pig. It's going to be one of those day, isn't it?

-Your family will likely be unaffected by happenings in the wizarding world.

-You are likely to be discriminated against because of your blood status.

-50 CP

The screen continued down to describe half-blood and pureblood options, but I'd already decided. Mudblood pride and all that. Plus the other two cost 100 CP, and I bet that those would be important later on. Another reason is that muggleborn would likely affect my thought processes least aside from Drop-In, and that one didn't offer enough of an upside to offset both of its downsides. Tapping a little green button under the muggleborn option, the point counter went down to 950 CP and the other three options greyed out.

Just below the origins were a few short blurbs describing various wealth options form impoverished to wealthy. Which I immediately chose. I have intimate experience with how wealth can broaden one's prospect. This brought my ticker down to 800, but on the upside I was pretty sure- yup, wealthy opened up some free equipment choices later on. Scrolling back up a bit, I saw that My next decision was Houses. But here, instead of choosing a house with points there was a… die? Really, what was this, a D&D game?

A drawer popped out of the side of the pedestal, a small eight sided die resting inside. Picking it up, I made a quick roll and landed a five. The screen equated this to a one which landed me in with the Gryffs. Huh, that was certainly… quick. Hey, it beat a mind reading hat. Plus, it was my first choice anyway, since it gives me an in with the main characters. Though if it had been an actual personality test I probably would have gone to Ravenclaw or Slytherin.

After the houses section, I went on to the meat of any true CYOA. The skills section. A quick glance and- yup there was the discount system in place. Let's see. A skill called Dedicated was free because of my origin, which basically turned him into mini Hermione, allowing him to read the stalest of magical texts without getting bored. Made sense, of course I wasn't going to get freaking bored, it's magic. I snatched up Occlumency too since if I want to keep any sort of secret while living with Snape, it was a must. I also grabbed Animagus, and Metamorphmagus, because fuck yeah, shapeshifting

And then I saw it. The mother load, the treasure box, the mothereffing Wandless Magic ability. Sure, I had to drop the Seer to get it, but now way would I be caught with his pants down and without a wand. On the downside that left me at negative 500 points, but I could solve that with a quick jaunt through the Drawback section.

There, I picked up Prisoner of Azkaban, and Werewolf. The first would have someone in Azkaban escape and come after me within the first three years, and the second would, well, turn me into a werewolf. On the bright side, Dumbledore would be 'making arrangements' so I'd probably have access to wolfsbane for at least the first six years of this little field trip, assuming I don't butterfly away the old man's death.

This left me with an extra 100 points that I set aside for the moment to check out what exactly I'd gotten in the Equipment section. Huh, pretty decent. A Pet Owl, a Nimbus 2000, and a Dragon-Hide Jacket. The owl and the broom would both be useful, but the jacket was definitely the star of the haul. Resistance to minor physical and magical attacks? Plus a growth charm and a nice aesthetic on its own? Heck yes.

Scrolling back around a bit, nothing really stuck out as something I would want and could afford. That is, until I saw the Technomage ability. Yeah, I've read the Invincible Technomage, I'd definitely be snatching that up. Even just nineties level tech would be a giant kick for the magical world, assuming I could get the stupid fricking luddites to accept something so muggle seeming, even if it included magic.

A pop up appeared saying "Confirmation: Are these the choices you would like to make before moving on?"

I tapped the green button and the world turned to static.


	2. Chapter 2

I wake up to my radio blaring and the sounds of traffic outside my window. That's weird, I'm pretty sure I closed that window. Yeah, it was ridiculously hot out the night before and mom turned on the air conditioning. And I wasn't used to that much traffic either, usually there were only one or two cars passing my house in the morning. And what is this scratchy afghan? Where's my comforter? Actually, I don't remember going to sleep, wasn't I just at school?

I jolt upright and almost throw myself off the bed when my body was much lighter than expected. What the hell? Where am I? This isn't my room, for one it's much bigger and looked a bit more posh and clean than anything I was used to. And then there was- oh my god what the fuck! My body is all… tiny! My arms and legs are like twigs and my hair is short and I'm all pudgy again and. Oh. Oh dear god. My dicks gone. Well not gone but it's… jesus christ what the fuck. Why is it like I'm suddenly a ten year old again? I'm pretty I'm hyperventilating because someone kidnapped me and messed with my fucking body.

I calm down, of course this is my body, and this is definitely my room, I've lived here for the past two years, ever since me and my parents moved to England from America. Why was I freaking ou- oh my god what the fuck! Who the fuck was that? That wasn't me, I know that but it sounded like my thoughts and I do remember moving and oh god what the fuck is happening to me‽

A wave of force ripples out of my body, causing a few bookshelves to spill their contents and several picture frames to shatter loudly.

And then it all comes swimming back, getting pushed down the stairs, the Being, the Room, the pedestal, the choices.

Jesus fucking Christ what have I done. Yeah I like reading Harry Potter and I've even written some fanfiction for it but I never actually wanted to go there! And based on the mess that I'd just left my room and my memories I knew I'd be directly swept up into the storyline unless I somehow got out of going to Hogwarts.

"Son, you alright up there?" comes a shout from below that my memory placed as my dad. Well, my new dad. My old dad was a massive dick who managed to have six kids, each one of them more fucked up than the last. Here I'm an only child and my dad is actually pretty decent. He was a real pale guy with almost no hair left and was the CEO of a large solar and wind energy company. They're doing really good since they have the tiniest bit of an edge on most other models out there. He's very kind and forward looking and has always been a good provider for me and my new mom if a bit distant. My mom is a marketing executive for some resteraunt. She's real close with me and probably more mentally stable than my actual mom. She's real tall, about as tall as I'll be a few growth spurts down the line, and has a thick build with long dark black hair with more curls than even mine, and that's saying something.

"Um, yeah dad! I just had another accident!" I shout down. Over the years there have been multiple incidents where my magic has come out to play, especially when I was younger and had less of a handle on it. My parents had basically had me locked up till I was about six for fear of anyone finding out about my abilities and taking me away. The fact that I was a Metamorphmagus had only made it worse since I spent my youth constantly shifting my facial features to whatever I was looking at at the time. I had had to either learn how to control it all before my parents relaxed and let me loose a bit, though I was still being homeschooled.

"Well fix it!" he shouted up laughing. "When you're done come down here, there's someone you should meet!"

With a quick wave of my hand, the glass repaired itself and the books flew back to their places. I'd had a lot of practice with cleaning and repairing spells over the years.

Deciding that while I was on the topic of fixing things, I should probably fiddle with my body a bit, just to make it a bit more like what I was used to. Going into the peculiar state of mind of expecting my body to be something it wasn't, I start working on my body fat. Instead of having most of it disappear I use the mass to fuel a little bit of musculature on my arms and legs. Not anything real big, just what could be expected of a kid my apparent age who did a lot of running around and playing would have. Moving on to my hair, I grow it out till it's about shoulder length with all the poofiness and curls I was used to. I also take the time clear away a bit of acne leaving my skin a rich, clear, tawny brown.

I leave it at that till I have a bit more time and hopefully a mirror. getting dressed and walking out of my room, I come out into a grand hallway with all the trappings of wealth I never had in my old life; lush carpets, high ceilings, and a whole bunch of little things like new looking furniture, or no dirt or dust courtesy of the weekly cleaning service.

I make my way down a set of stairs and through a few doorway before I come out into the main living room. One wall is devoted entirely to a giant window looking out onto our yard and the other is lined with bookshelves. There are two dark leather couches around a glass coffee table and on one are my parents and on the other is Minerva McGonagall.

She actually looks a lot like the actress who portrayed her, though her face is a bit more angular. She's currently dressed in dark green robes that look quite good for something that went out of style a few centuries back. On her lap is - and I swear to god - a pointy hat. God I love magic world.

"Morning Nick," says my mom, glancing between me and the Professor, "this is Professor McGonagall. She's here to talk to you about your abilities."

"Good morning Mr. Johnston," she says. I make note of my new last name, that'll probably be important. "As your mother said, my name is Professor Minerva McGonagall, and I'm offering you a chance to come be a student at the school I teach at, where you would learn to better be able to control your abilities."

"You mean the weird things I can do?" I ask, playing along.

"I assure you, your power is perfectly normal, there are many thousands of people just like you in Great Britain alone, and countless more spread out all over the world."

"You mean the alien incursion has really gone that far?" I ask excitedly.

"I- what? Aliens?" she looks like she's about respond before she cuts off as what I had said finally filters through.

"Well, that was one of the theories me and dad have, since it would explain the clearly psychic in nature abilities, but it doesn't quite mesh with the other stuff. Mom still holds out on me being some sort of mutant."

She takes a minute to process this before visibly deciding to discount most of what I'd just said. I suppose after a fair few decades of introducing other muggleborns to the wizarding world she must be used to all sorts of outlandish theories.

"And what exactly would 'other stuff' mean, Mr. Johnston?" she says after a moment.

"Well for one thing, there's this." I close my eyes for a moment going back into my Metamorphmagus trance. Slowly I can feel my body shift, getting a bit taller. My hair grows longer, straighter, and, though I can't see it, a vibrant red. My skin turns dark blue and suddenly I'm a male, prepubescent version of Mystique.

"Mr. Johnston! You're a Metamorphmagus!" she exclaims, looking in wonder at my new form. Based on what Tonks did in the books, this is probably a bit more than her ability.

"A Meta-whatnow?" asks my dad, used to me transforming into various characters. I'd once scared the hell out of him by making myself look like a mini Falkor after watching the Neverending story when I was four. After that he was pretty chill about me having a new nose every once in awhile.

"A Metamorphmagus. A wizard with the ability to change their shape at will." Professor McGonagall explains, looking excited. "It is very rare ability, as far as I know, there is only one other in the country."

"There's another person who can do this?" I say as I return to my - enhanced - base form.

"Yes, a young girl who goes to my school, actually," she says, looking almost hungry. That's… weird. "If you were to enroll, you'ld be able to speak with some who could truly teach you how to use your skill."

"I think I have a fairly good handle on it." I say smirking, a little bit of the arrogance that comes with being raised rich coming out.

"I noticed that you had to close your eyes and concentrate to shift. Miss Tonks is capable of changing completely at will, needing but an instant to morph." she says smirking right back, a glint of something in her eye.

"Now wait a minute," my mom says, looking interested, "let's back up second. You said wizard. Is that what's going on here, magic?"

Professor McGonagall nods.

"Yes, magic is quite real. There is an entire society, mostly separate from yours, where witchcraft and wizardry still lives."

My mom seems to take this pretty well, just muttering about oweing my Uncle Marty twenty bucks. My dad still looks skeptical though. He was really stuck on the alien theory.

"Perhaps something of a demonstration would be of use," she says, apparently sensing my dad's doubt, "just to get us all on the same page."

"Yes, I think that would be helpful." says my mom, excited to see some real magic. She'd always been a fan of Lord of the Rings.

"All right then. What I'm about to do is a very advanced technique, one that is not even touched upon until your second to last year at Hogwarts. The power of the Animagus." Just a moment later, where once sat Professor now sat a large tabby cat with markings around her eyes remarkably similar to her glasses.

Eagerly, I stand up and bound over to her, absently noting my mother's vaguely disappointed face. Then I'm shrinking and stretch and sprouting and then a young lion cub is sitting next to the cat, doing a fair impression of a grin.

McGonagall shrieks.


	3. Chapter 3

In hindsight, revealing my Animagus form so soon probably wasn't the most strategically sound move, but when else was I going to be able to watch Professor McGonagall jump, transform in mid air, and go tumbling over an armrest? I could probably sell the memory for more than my weight in gold.

She quickly gets back up, staring at me in wonder. My parents are trying really hard not to snicker after seeing that the aged woman isn't any worse for wear.

"Mr. Johnston! Wha- how? How did this happen?" Seeing as I'm still too busy laughing to answer- as much as a lion cub could do either- my mom jumps in to explain.

"Nick was always able to turn his limbs and face and things into animal parts. Then when he started trying lion parts he said it was 'more natural' and he seemed to be able to do them easier. Took him about six months till he was flopping around, tripping over his own tail as a baby lion." she says proudly. By now my parents have pretty much stopped being weirded out by stuff I do and settled into a state of mild pride and bemusement.

"This is simply amazing! Never before have I had a child simply stumble onto their Animagus form! Usually it takes many months of meditation to find it." she takes a studying eye to me and I feel the need to stop laughing. My form has similar-ish coloring to Scar from the Lion King, though that movie hasn't come out yet. It's still much lighter than his though, dark brown mane instead of black and lighter fur everywhere else. I'm still pretty small, probably no bigger than a corgi. Made sense, since I was an eleven year old again. And on my right leg is a large amount of scar tissue that looks like a bite mark. Yeah. Almost forgot about that.

"Mr. Johnston if you could change back, I would like to ask you some questions."

My body went through the familiar and yet not shift from cub to boy and I ended up sitting cross legged on the couch.

"What you wanna know ma'am?" I ask, because of course I'm going to be respectful to McGonagall, she fucking badass. Falling off furniture aside.

"For one, how exactly you came upon your form?"

"Well, pretty much what Mom said. When I was like five or six I decided that dinosaurs were lame and having scales made me really itchy so I decided to try giving myself a mane. All my other animal shifts were kind of hard to do but that one just felt… I dunno, better some how. Like I'd always been meant to have it. Took me about a month to be able to make myself turn into it fully. I've never been able to go that far with other animals. Other cat type things seem to be a bit easier though." I shrug.

"And, ah, if I may ask. What was that scar on your leg?"

"Oh that. Me and dad went camping like three weeks ago and some weird mutant, hairless dog thing attacked me. Dad had a gun though so we chased it off. Something about the scar won't let me heal it all the way though."

McGonagall stilled and stared at me, a sort weird look on her face. Yeah, I don't think I'd know quite how to react to some kid dropping three gigantic bombs like that.

"Did this… attack, happen at night?"

"Yes it did. Why, do you know something? Was it some sort of magic beast?" asks my father.

"... I believe it may have been. If you would allow me to cast a diagnostic spell on your son, I could be certain."

"What would the spell do?" asks my mother.

"If I'm wrong nothing, but if I'm right it will alert us to the problem. It is much better to know of these things now rather than to… find out down the line." I force myself not to shudder at the thought of just waking up one day not knowing where I am… covered in blood… not being able to find my parents, or rather, not wanting to… yeah, calm yourself down Nick. We don't need a panic attack over something that's about to be fixed.

"Nick, it's your choice. Do you wanna do this?" my mom asks me.

"Yeah. Better to make sure, right?"

"Alright Mr. Johnston. This won't hurt at all, at most you'll feel a slight tingle." she takes out her wand and points it at my leg. "Ostende lupis!"

The area around my scar lets out a red glow, easily seen through my pants and McGonagall lets out a sigh.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Nick."

"What? What is it?" my mom asks, beginning to get really worried.

McGonagall takes off her glasses, rubbing the area between her eyes.

"Your son suffers from lycanthropy, a magical disease which induces a transformation from the form of a human to that of deform canine three times a month." she says, slumped forward.

"... a werewolf. You're telling us our son is a werewolf." my mom says flatly.

"Yes, that is the common term for it, though they're technically called lycanthropes. I must tell you Mr. and Mrs. Johnston, this disease is a terrible thing. The transformations are very painful and when transformed the affected lose most of their mental faculties, retreating into the primal mind."

"And there's nothing we can do about this? No-no treatments? Is my son gonna be like this forever?" my mom is descending into a full on panic and my dad is trying his best to calm her.

"There is a potion one can take, called the Wolfsbane potion. It lets those who use retain their minds and lightens the pain, though it does wear one out even more than just the transformations alone would."

"But there's no cure? No way to stop these shifts?" my father asks, visibly trying to keep himself together for my mom.

"No, I'm afraid not. Many potioneers and quite a few alchemists have attempted to cure the disease. The closest anyone has gotten is the Wolfsbane potion. In fact, one of our professors, a young Severus Snape was the one to develop it. If you were to come to Hogwarts we would be able to supply you with the potion for the next 7 years, by which time you would have been taught to brew it yourself."

After that we settle whether or not I'm going pretty quickly. My parents desperately wanted to spare me the pain these involuntary shifts would cause and I sure as fuck was pushing for it. That, plus McGonagall's oddly intensive argueing for me to go, had me and my parents planning for an outing to Diagon Alley tomorrow. It takes us a while to sort out the details, just stuff like what kind of classes they taught and what rules there were, most of which I tune out.

No, I am far too busy looking forward to what comes next. The moment she leaves, promising to be back the next morning at around the same time, I race up to my bedroom and lock myself in the adjoining bathroom. So loving the wealth choice right now. I hop up onto the counter and stare at myself in the mirror. Time to put those transhumanist tendencies to their first true use. First of all, skintone. Right now my skin is noticeably darker than your average white guy's but not dark enough that I couldn't be mistaken for someone who'd spent a long time tanning. Time to fix that. I up the melanin concentration in my epidermis and watch as it grows to deep chocolate color. My sisters have a skin roughly the same shade and I've always been a bit jealous of them for it. I was the only one in my family with any real need for sunscreen. Not anymore though.

Next, hair. Twisting the strands a bit I bring the curls a bit tighter, just cause I like the look and go through a few quick hairstyles before settling for about three inches of hair on top and then close shaved on the sides. I also darken it a tad since I'd always liked my mom's pure black hair rather than my own dark brown.

Eyes. I'm pretty happy with them as they are now, but I do add a few flakes of gold among the brown just to make them a bit more striking and remove any bags I have from staying up late.

I thicken my nose a bit since I'd always had a bit of trouble regarding nosebleeds and I'm hoping the extra few layers of skin will help with that. I also add in a few elements of my lion form to get a better sense of smell, doing the same to my ears at the same time while I'm at it. This doesn't have all that much of a visible effect, other than once again making both appendages a bit bigger. Nothing noticeable to someone who hasn't met me, and my parents are already used to me messing with my looks.

My mouth I just straighten a couple teeth which had always bugged me since they were just out of line with the others. I also fiddle with my lips a bit since they were always getting chapped. I fix this by routing a few extra veins to them to keep them better hydrated. This has the side effect of making them a bit thicker but that's fine. Better than having flakes of lip fall into your mouth.

Before I move on from the face I go the final step and make everything completely symmetrical. Most of how we perceive beauty is based on symmetry and being handsome will definitely serve me well. Plus, who doesn't want to be prettier than they are?

Moving down to my body as a whole I remove any hair below my neck. It's not much now but it'll save me a crapton of time later on. I even removed it from my legs and oh my god so smooth. Fiddling with my scar a bit more, I still can't make it disappear but what I can do sort of… compact? And move it down to my foot where it'll be less noticeable.

The last thing I do is push back my cuticles and then turn the finger nails into something more like my lions claws. They get about a half inch longer and much stronger, with the added additions of a sharp point and retractability. This makes them much darker, but I solve that by turning them blue and calling it nail polish. I look fabulous in blue, by the way.

I tool around with adding a tail but decide to save that for Hogwarts.

God I love magic.

I enter back into my room and sit down on the floor after lighting some incense. Time to figure out this Occlumency thing.


End file.
